DEL MAR: Group planning push against I-5 expansion

Group says rail a better way to ease congestion

A tiny but committed group of Del Mar residents is organizing
against massive Interstate 5 expansion plans, saying the blueprints
will create, not erase, Los Angeles-like gridlock along the San
Diego County coastal freeway.

The group, Prevent Los Angeles Gridlock Usurping the
Environment, or PLAGUE, consists of just five people: two
attorneys, a real estate broker, an ophthalmologist and a retired
military veteran.

Its goal, however, is as soaring as the cliffs at nearby Torrey
Pines State Beach: to stop the expansion of I-5 from eight lanes to
as many as 14 from La Jolla to Oceanside.

An environmental report should be released in January or
February on the 27-mile, multibillion-dollar project, which has
been in the planning stages for more than a decade and will require
the acquisition of dozens of properties along the interstate.

Noel Spaid, a Del Mar attorney and PLAGUE's chair, said her
group is well aware of I-5's congestion. The solution, however,
should be a more robust rail system, she said.

Transportation officials say the expansion ---- which would
include four carpool lanes ---- is necessary because the freeway's
traffic has grown enormously.

Forecasts show it will only get more jammed. The rush-hour drive
from Oceanside to La Jolla takes about 45 minutes on weekdays; it
could spike to 90 minutes if no improvements are made, officials
say.

Near the Del Mar Heights Road interchange, about 261,000 cars
travel I-5 each day. About 430,000 are expected on that stretch by
2030 due to population and job growth, according to January data
from the San Diego Association of Governments, which plans and
helps finance the region's major roadway projects.

"It's the region's lifeline," said Richard Chavez, a principle
transportation engineer for SANDAG. "It's our main connection to
Los Angeles and to Mexico."

The project will cost between $3 billion and $4 billion
depending on how many lanes are added, said Allan Kosup, the San
Diego I-5 corridor director for the California Department of
Transportation. The state agency is considering expansion to either
12 lanes or 14 lanes, he said.

Caltrans estimates between 30 and 50 homes and businesses will
need to be acquired and relocated, particularly along the northern
stretch of I-5, in Carlsbad and Oceanside, Kosup said. Up to 500
more may lose a sliver of their property, to make way for the
construction of sound walls and the new lanes, but will not need to
be moved, he said. The environmental report will include detailed
property acquisition plans.

Caltrans expects to build the project in phases over perhaps 15
years, Kosup said. TransNet, the region's half-cent sales tax,
should provide about half the funding while state and federal funds
will be sought to pay the remainder, he said.

About $30 million already has been spent on the environmental
studies. And officials have secured $32 million for design work to
extend one carpool lane on northbound and southbound I-5 from
Encinitas to Carlsbad. But the project does not have construction
funds, Kosup said, noting Caltrans did not want to tie up money for
a project that is still a couple of years from potentially
starting.

The project must overcome numerous environmental hurdles before
it can be built, officials said. One of the biggest will be a
permit from the California Coastal Commission, since the interstate
is built over or near seven lagoons, they said.

PLAGUE has called on other coastal communities to oppose the I-5
expansion, Spaid said, gaining some support in places such as
Solana Beach and Encinitas. Caltrans has held community meetings
about the widening as far back as 2001.

Spaid said her group plans a Del Mar town hall meeting close to
the release of the environmental impact report. Several of PLAGUE's
members, including Spaid, also are members of the Torrey Pines
Community Planning Group. She said PLAGUE is operating
independently of that board.

The group also opposes a planned "flyover" connection, or raised
onramp, from Highway 56 to I-5, saying the noise from cars on that
connector would damage the quality of life for many communities
near that junction. An environmental report for that project is
expected to be complete in mid-2010, officials said.

"My prediction is there will be a lot of people who step forward
and say we've already screwed up our environment enough. We need to
find new ... alternative ways to dealing with transportation ----
and that has to be rail," said Charles Richmond, a member of PLAGUE
and the Torrey Pines board. He is a real estate attorney who lives
in Del Mar.

PLAGUE is raising money to hire experts to evaluate and oppose
the project's environmental impact report, Spaid said. It's raised
$17,000 of the roughly $70,000 it will need, she said.

The report evaluates the project's potential impact on traffic,
air pollution, the lagoons, wildlife and many other topics.

PLAGUE believes that a more robust rail system is the only way
out of added gridlock, Spaid and Richmond said.

The two cited state mandates to cut greenhouse gas emissions as
an added reason for mass transit.

The region in October lost a chance to double-track its coastal
railway when the state scrapped SANDAG's request that the project
be included on a state application for the most recent round of
federal stimulus dollars. State officials instead decided to apply
only for funds for the planned 800-mile-long bullet train
project.

Still, Kosup said, design work is under way on seven sections of
the coastal railway, which will make it more competitive the next
time the region seeks construction money for it.